


The Catalyst

by candlewriter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Mild Language, Romance, Slow Burn, Spider-Man: Homecoming Spoilers, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21571630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candlewriter/pseuds/candlewriter
Summary: For most superheroes and villains their super persona was their alter ego, but for Roxana Moore it was the other way round.By day she pretended to be the blonde ditz Roxie, but by night she was Katalyst, a stone cold hacker with no concern for personal privacy.| a Peter Parker x OC story | Spiderman Homecoming |
Relationships: Peter Parker/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> a/n- this is basically an introductory chapter to who Roxana is and a little bit of backstory, I promise they'll be more Peter as the story progresses

I hated the name Roxana. When I was a kid I wanted to be called Roxanne, there are songs about Roxanne. Now that I’m older I realise that the main song I knew by The Police was about a prostitute, and it was probably best that I wasn’t named after it, but it doesn’t make being called Roxana instead any better. While Roxanne was a prostitute, Roxana sounded like a stripper who was addicted to at least five different drugs and would one day end up dead in a dumpster somewhere. Oddly enough I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how a majority of my classmates can see me ending up. Or at least that’s where they see “Roxie” ending up.

After I was over my Roxanne phase I got people to call me Rocky. I grew up in Canada with my father, who at the time was just starting up the thriving business he owns today. My mother was missing to put it simply. She had been in and out of my life for the first 5 or so years, I don’t have many memories of her but the ones I did have weren’t good. Mostly her passed out on the sofa with her dress riding somehow up her ass and down her chest leaving nothing to the imagination. She was a mess who wasn’t ready to be a mother, she was too young and enjoyed partying too much. It was almost a relief when she left and didn’t return. I think my father looked for her for a while and filed a missing person report, but even he was relieved she was gone. She was a bad influence on the both of us.

I watched the movie Matilda religiously when I was a kid. I’d pretend to be able to move things with my mind, and I went as far as to study mathematics to a degree where I could list multiplication almost as well as she could off the top of my head. That was the first sign to the teachers and my father that I was a smart kid. So I guess suck on that mother- the alcohol you drank while you were pregnant with me didn’t turn my brain to mush.  
As I entered high school, I took a great interest in computers. I’d pull them apart, I’d put them back together, I just wanted to know how they worked. Alongside that came hacking. First it was basic things, hacking into the school website so it said stupid things when parents looked at it, just dumb and pointless things that would make me giggle. This caught the attention of a group of kids I would later call my friends. Quickly, the basic hacking turned into more advanced hacking into people’s social media in order to blackmail the jocks with the dick pics they’d sent to the cheerleaders, threatening that if they didn’t do what we told them to we’d send the images to their parents. Then I moved on to hacking the school systems to change the grades my friends got so they wouldn’t get shit from their parents for not revising.  
Things escalated and I was going down a slippery and sketchy slope, but I drew the line when they told me to hack into someone's bank account to get them some quick cash. They refused to take no for an answer and locked me into the schools computer lab and told me they wouldn’t let me out until they each had at least $500.  
I first considered contacting a teacher to get them to let me out, but I knew one thing would lead to another with that and they’d soon find out about my tampering with grades and whatnot, so I wrote that idea off as a bust.  
My second idea was to activate the fire alarm, if they thought there was a fire in the school they’d get out and save their own asses, eventually a teacher would come past making sure no students were trapped and would find me locked in the room. I’d just say the door got jammed and I panicked or something, sure I’d probably get in a little bit of trouble but it wouldn’t be as bad. But as I scanned the room I realised the flaw in my plan- there was no fire alarm in the computer lab. I was about 99% sure that’s illegal or something, didn’t all rooms in a school have to have a fire alarm just in case?   
What I did notice however was a smoke alarm, which I hoped in turn would set off the fire alarms. The only issue was causing the smoke alarm to go off in the first place, because believe it or not you need smoke for a smoke alarm to go off. There was probably a button on it somewhere that would have triggered everything, but I was 5’2 and even standing on a chair I wasn’t tall enough to reach it. So that left one last solution. I knew from personal experience that overloading electrical wires will heat them up, and in some cases it can heat up to the point where it will burn something adjacent to it, something like paper would easily do the trick and there was plenty of that in the printer. Quickly, I got to work on my master plan to escape.

And then I got electrocuted.  
Like a total fucking idiot.

A few hours later I woke up in a hospital bed. By this age my father was too busy with his now prospering company so it was up to the doctor and the teacher who had found me in the room to explain what had happened.  
My plan actually worked, the smoke alarms were set off, sadly it was my arm hairs being singed and part of one of my eyebrows that set them off. My so called ‘friends’ went running and a teacher walking past to get to the fire drill checkpoint spotted me in the room and immediately rescued me from the locked room, calling an ambulance shortly after. Apparently it was a good job he did find me, because my vitals were crashing and it took a round of CPR to get my heart beating properly and my lungs breathing air normally again. As the angsty teen I was I had joked many times about wanting to die, but actually dying had never truly crossed my mind as a thing that could really happen until it nearly did.

Once my father heard the story, or at least the parts that didn’t incriminate me too much in my previous hacking escapades, he decided it was time for a change. His business was doing so well that he wanted to take it to America, and apparently his only daughter almost dying was a sign I guess? So when I was almost completely recovered, we packed up and moved to Queens, New York. He enrolled me in Midtown School of Science and Technology where I would have fit right in with my knack for technology and hunger for knowledge.  
Would have.

I was given a couple weeks to settle in to the new town and new house before I had to start school. The house was nice, but it was too big for just the pair of us, it felt empty all the time. I suggested getting a cat or a dog to liven the place up but he said that with his business and my studies we wouldn’t have the time for it and it wouldn’t be fair on the animal. I reluctantly agreed.  
So during my weeks of nothingness, I went back to fiddling with technology and found something very VERY strange began to happen.  
First it just felt like weird tingles throughout my hands when I touched an electronic device of some sort, I assumed it was just psychosomatic after the electrocution and brushed it off. Then somehow I managed to turn my laptop on from across the room. I had been thinking about how I was too lazy to stand up and go get it, and how I wished my arms would stretch super far so I could do what I needed without having to actually move. Well my arms didn’t stretch far but my laptop started acting as though I was touching it. It would do whatever I could imagine in my mind physically doing. For a moment I got really excited, thinking I could recreate that scene from Matilda where she’s dancing around the house and making everything move with her mind, but I soon found I could only remotely control electronic devices. Which was still pretty cool but not as cool as I originally hoped.  
However, this wasn’t my only power. I found I could shoot beams and sparks of electricity from my fingertips, which burned a hole in the sofa that my father went nuts about when he found. I lied and told him I had been smoking which wasn’t great but probably better to process than discovering your daughter has magic powers. Smoking could be quit, weird powers couldn’t- or at least if they could I had no idea nor any wish to discover how to.

So before I had to sacrifice myself to starting school full time again, I decided to test my newfound powers out. I practically squealed in delight when I realised I could control things like the electronic billboards scattered around queens with vibrant ads flashing about on them. I changed one to say “look at the road and not at this sign, idiot”. It made the news. I could turn street lights on and off at will, and the best part about it all is that I didn’t have to be too close or even see the item, just picture it in my mind and boom! I could manipulate it! I could control a computer somewhere as long as I knew where that computer was and could picture it, I could hack remotely and leave no electronic trace of me being the perpetrator because brains don’t leave an electronic trace.

So Katalyst was born.

At first I did the cheesy thing, and vowed to myself to only use my powers for good, but it wasn’t long until I discovered that good and bad weren’t exactly black and white. Good people do bad things for a good reason sometimes. Bad people do good things for a bad reason. So I had to go back on my personal vow.  
It quickly dawned on me that people might start to make connections between the new vigilante in Queens, Katalyst, and the new girl who was about to join Midtown School who had a knack for technology and hacking. By this time it was Saturday and I was due to start school on Monday. I’d already in my two or so weeks of having powers had done some shifty and questionable things by exposing the plans of some even more shifty and questionable politicians, so I was already in too deep to turn around and be a shining beacon of good and justice.

My conclusion was that it was time to say goodbye to Rocky. I went to the hairdressers and had them bleach and tone my dark brown hair a light blonde, it would be a pain keeping up with the root growth but my father was wealthy enough for me to afford going to the hairdressers every couple weeks to ensure no brown ever peaks through. I then swapped out the glasses I wore to see for some blue tinted prescription contacts, turning my green eyes to more of a teal colour. Lastly, I introduced myself to everyone as Roxie instead of Rocky.  
At first I struggled, I realised I was answering too many questions correctly in class, and so whenever I caught myself about to answer something, I would switch and give an answer I knew would be completely wrong. I very quickly gained a reputation for being Roxie the Airhead, which then turned into Roxie the Dumbass, which finally progressed to Roxie the Complete Fucking Idiot.  
In a weird way it was exciting to me to be Roxie, it’s like I was an actress in a TV show and my character was the stereotypical dumb blonde. Though I still ached and yearned to be able to answer questions with the correct thing, I knew I couldn’t. I couldn’t join the Decathlon Team, or the Robotics Club, or the Computer Club, or anything of the sort. I just couldn’t risk blowing my cover.

The irony in all of this is that everything kicked off when I refused to hack a bank account, now here I was hacking into the S.H.I.E.L.D database to find out what they were hiding from the public on a weekly basis. I felt invincible.  
But I wasn’t invincible.  
I soon discovered there were limits to my powers when I tried to control one of my ex friend’s computers back in Canada. It drained me completely, like a battery. I was exhausted and my powers weren’t working, it lasted for days. I panicked at the thought of my powers never returning, but over a couple of days as I built back my physical energy, my powers recharged like a battery. I had to take time off of school to recover but I passed it off as food poisoning.

After a couple of months at Midtown playing the role of Roxie, I hated to admit it but I was getting bored. So I did what any logical person would do and started a gossip blog based around students and faculty, but the difference between my gossip and other mainstream gossip blogs is that I had concrete evidence that I recovered through hacking. I had broken down many a friendship and revealed a relationship between two of the teachers that no one could have predicted.  
My favourite target was Rachel Cooper. Rachel was pretty, popular, rich, and the meanest bitch I had ever had the displeasure of meeting. But most importantly she was Roxie’s ‘best friend’. She solidified my social standing as Roxie, I walked amongst the elite in the school, we got what we wanted, when we wanted. There were four of us girls who stuck together the most. Myself, Rachel Cooper, Amanda Carson, and Megan Sutton.  
Amanda was your stereotypical spoilt brat. She got anything she wanted and if her daddy said no then she’d just take his credit card and get it anyway. She would agree to do anything if it meant that she got attention from it. Apparently she once flashed Flash outside his house because someone ‘told her to do it’. One day she’d get herself killed by doing something stupid. I wouldn’t miss her.  
Megan on the other hand was the sweetest person I had ever met. She would do anything for anyone but most importantly she would do anything for Rachel. After researching more into students for my gossip blog I discovered the reason why hidden deep deep down within Megan’s notes on her phone. It was a heartfelt confession of love, a confession written to Rachel. What she saw in the bitch I could never tell, but my heart went out to her nonetheless. I knew she would never have the guts to confess her true feelings, all I could hope is that she one day finds the happiness she deserves.

Rachel on the other hand deserves to burn in hell. I dug deep and found more shit on her than I could have ever dreamt of finding, but I held a large portion of it back from the blog. One day I would use what I knew to completely and utterly destroy her, but I still needed her for my social standing at Midtown, so I stored the information away for later use.  
Of course, I also wrote some smaller articles about Roxie on the blog. Eventually people would have added 2 + 2 together and realised that I was the only one who had been left unscathed. I’d be outed as GossipGirlWannabeXOXO, owner of Midtown Madness, and probably eventually as Katalyst. I just couldn’t afford that. So I threw in some bits and pieces, mostly just texts to Rachel calling various teachers and students bitches and whatnot, things mild enough to not go completely unnoticed but also not harm my reputation.

I didn’t only use my powers to piss off drivers and expose people for being snakes, I actually did my fair share of vigilante crime fighting, which is how I first met the elusive Spiderman. Up close it was clear that his costume was as homemade as mine. I had patched together some black workout gear and sewn on green panels from a similar fabric. I looked like the Xbox logo personified, but it was the best I’d get. I also wore a plain black mask over my mouth, and I’d popped out the lenses of my glasses and created some goggles using them so I’d be able to see without my contacts. It wasn’t the nicest or most professional costume, but it hid almost every hint of Roxie. The only issue was my hair, at first I considered wearing a wig, but then I realised that it was already hot enough running around after criminals in the workout gear which was supposed to be breathable, I didn’t need added sweat running down my face and neck with the addition of a wig. Plenty of people were blonde, and I just made sure I tied my hair up as Katalyst, and kept it down as Roxie, for added effect I curled my hair slightly as Roxie to give some naturalish looking beach curls.  
Another key feature of my costume was the cleavage. I quickly realised that a large majority of the people committing crimes were male, and being criminals they weren’t exactly the most sophisticated bunch. About 75% of them would stop for a second to stare at my boobs, giving me a split second to formulate a plan and, in some cases, give them a good zap. It depended on how I felt that day and how much my teen angst bullshit got in the way.

But back to Spiderman.

It wasn’t long until we wound up at the same convenience store robbery, Queens was big but it wasn’t huge, it was inevitable that we’d bump into each other. In this case he literally bumped into me. I think he mistook me for a robber, and tried to pin me down, but I was stronger than my outward appearance let off. He took a step back to look at me and even though I couldn’t see his eyes, or any distinguishing features for that matter, I saw that something clicked in his mind.  
“Woah! You’re that Kat girl person, right?” His voice sounded younger than I originally anticipated, this guy couldn’t be much older, if he was even older at all, than me.  
“Katalyst.” I sighed, not in the mood for small talk with him.  
“Right, yeah! Katalyst! Cool name by the way! I’m Spiderman.” He was way too cheery for someone who, while talking, was actually shooting webs at the robbers and pinning them to the walls and floors. “I read about you in the paper! You’re really cool, and kind of intimidating. Not that that’s a bad thing! I mean it makes people take you more seriously which is a good thing and-”  
“If you call pissing powerful people off by exposing their plans and royally fucking them over cool, I guess?” I rolled my eyes behind my goggles, sending a quick zap of electricity at one of the perps who had managed to wiggle their way out of part of the webbing.  
“Well that part maybe isn’t as cool- don’t get me wrong! Still super cool! But the crime fighting! You’re like Thor with the lightning! Does it just come out of your hands? That’s awesome!” He rambled on.  
“Do you ever stop talking?” I huffed, entering the store to examine the damage once I was satisfied none of the criminals would get away. A broken window and a slightly battered register, not bad, easily fixable. At least no one had been in the store and gotten hurt. “Look, how about you stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours, deal?” I asked, as Spiderman trailed after me down the short aisles. I grabbed a chocolate bar and shoved it into my pocket, telling myself that it was just payment for my duties. They would have missed the money the robbers were about to make off with more than a measly 64 cent candy bar.  
“Okay but hear me out! Think of how great we could be as a crime-fighting duo! I mean I don’t know about you but that was record time for me. We could help so many more people together!” He cheered, nudging me in the arm with his elbow. I sent a glare his way.  
“I prefer to stick to myself.” I said dryly, making my way out of the store and double checking that all 5 of the guys were still firmly secured and would be until actual law enforcement arrived.  
“But we-” He started, but I held my hand up to stop him and let a couple electric sparks shoot between my fingers for added emphasis.  
“I’m not interested.” I stated firmly. “If you try anything I will hunt you down. I will hack into every last email, every social media, every single piece of dirt I can physically find on you and I will send it all to the newspapers.”  
“Okay! Okay… I’ll… I’ll back off I guess.” He mumbled, slowly walking away backwards with his hands up like he was surrendering. “Just know that the offer is there.”  
“Yeah yeah, whatever.” With that we both went our separate ways. After that interaction we didn’t speak again, we’d bump into one another occasionally at crime scene, but we’d just give one another a quick nod to say ‘I’ve got this one’ or ‘You can take this one’. We always came to an unspoken agreement.   
I have no doubt that we would have made a great team, but I just couldn’t risk being tied down like that. Or… Webbed down like that I guess?


	2. Chapter 2

“Rise and shine, Midtown Science and Technology.” Betty Brant’s voice practically sung throughout the school. Collectively everyone glanced up at the closest screen to them, though only about half of the students were actually paying attention.  
“Students, don’t forget about your homecoming tickets.” Jason Ionello then reminded everyone, a graphic popping up on the screen advertising ‘Midtown High’s Totally 80s Homecoming’ which looked like it was trying just a little bit too hard to be obviously 80s. “Do you have a date for homecoming?”  
“Thanks, Jason, but I already have a date.” Betty was clearly embarrassed as all hell that Jason was attempting to ask her out in front of the entire school on the daily news broadcast. Students around me stifled laughs while others cringed in secondhand embarrassment.  
“Okay.” Jason said simply.  
“Yeah.” Betty said through what looked like a slightly strained grin. Honestly power to Jason for shooting his shot and pretending that it didn’t fail miserably. Nevermind, I spoke too soon, the camera zoomed in on his face and he looked like he had just shit himself. Poor guy.  
I closed my locker just as Rachel, Amanda, and Megan reached me.  
“Do you think Flash will ask me to Homecoming?” Amanda sighed, leaning against the locker next to mine and giving me puppy dog eyes as though I had any way of controlling what Flash Asshole Johnson did with his life.  
“Gross! Flash?” Rachel called out suddenly, grabbing Amanda by the shoulders and spinning her around so she could look her in the eye. “He may be a jock or whatever, but he’s also a total science nerd! You can do so much better!” I fought back the urge to point out that we went to a Science and Technology school, a good 90% of the student population were in some way a nerd.  
“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Amanda mumbled, clearly disappointed that Rachel didn’t approve, and because Rachel didn’t approve it automatically couldn’t happen. “Who’s taking you Rachel?” She suddenly asked, changing the subject from her failed hopes and dreams.  
“Josh asked me yesterday, he gave me a bouquet of pink roses and told me that I was the only girl for him.” She gloated, a smirk on her face. I had recently learnt that Amanda had a crush on Josh for about 4 years, and just when it started to look like he would ask her out, Rachel swooped in like the soul sucking demonic bitch she is and took him. When I found out it was one of the few times I felt bad for Amanda.  
“Oh…” She sighed, looking dejected once more. “Uh... How about you Roxie?” She questioned, changing the subject and directing the trio’s attention towards me.  
“How about me what?” I asked, my voice higher pitched than it naturally is in order to achieve the perfect dumb blonde rouse.   
“Who’s taking you to Homecoming, dumbass?” Rachel rolled her eyes, opening her locker which was only two down from mine. I wanted to slap her so badly, but I refrained from showing any sign of anger on my face, as I did every single time I spoke to her.  
“Oh I don’t think I’m going.” I smiled, pretending to be completely oblivious. It was like the world froze around me for a second.  
“WHAT?” Amanda screeched, drawing far more attention to us than needed.  
“What the fuck do you mean you ‘don’t think you’re going’? What is your problem Roxie? You can’t just not go to Homecoming?” Rachel scoffed, slamming her locker shut. “That’s like social suicide! God you’re so lucky you have me- I mean us to guide you.”   
“Hey how about Jason? I mean judging from that trainwreck of a broadcast, he’s not got a date yet.” Amanda pointed out, Rachel slowly nodded.  
“Jason… Yeah, that could work.” She was planning something, I could tell she was, but I couldn’t quite gather what she was planning.  
“So should I ask him?” I asked, genuinely wondering what to do now. Back in Canada I didn’t go to Prom or Homecoming or Spring Fling whatever, and in an ideal world I didn’t want to go to them here. But sadly I wasn’t living in an ideal world, I was living in Rachel Cooper’s world.  
“Oh sweetie no!” Amanda cooed, placing a hand on my shoulder in what was probably supposed to be an act of support but instead came across as incredibly condescending.  
“God no! He needs to ask you.” Rachel notified me. I couldn’t help but think that the whole ‘the man has to ask the woman out, it can’t be the other way round’ was quite sexist, but I wasn’t about to call them out on their bullshit. “I can make it happen, just leave it all to me.” She tapped my nose on the last word and gave me a sickly sweet and clearly fake smile.  
“Megan, who’s taking you to Homecoming?” Amanda asked the girl who hadn’t said a word throughout this entire conversation.  
“Oh… Um… I’m going with…” She mumbled the name so quietly we couldn’t hear her.  
“Speak up.” Rachel practically demanded.  
“I’m going with Abe.” Megan admitted sheepishly.  
“Abe as in Abe Brown?” Amanda gasped as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. Megan nodded.  
“Abe is worse than Flash! He’s like- like the geekiest ever!” Rachel proclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically. By now the hallways had mostly cleared, that normally happens whenever the group of girls arrived anywhere, it was the best way to avoid social ridicule. How I wished I could join my fellow students in keeping their heads down and rushing to class early.  
“He’s on the Decathlon team!” Amanda pointed out, completely forgetting or ignoring the fact that her first pick of a date was also on the Decathlon team- or at least one of the substitute members of it. Megan started to stand up for Abe but was quickly shut down.  
“No no no, we need to find you someone else! Come with me!” Rachel grabbed Megan by the arm and dragged her away to some undisclosed location, leaving me with Amanda.  
“Hey um… Do you think it really would be a bad idea for me to go with Flash?” She asked me sheepishly, and for the first time I actually saw a shred of humanity behind her judgemental eyes.  
“I mean I guess he’s kind of cute.” I shrugged, starting to walk down the hallway to my next class, she followed behind me though I knew her classroom was in the other direction.  
“Right? Like yeah he’s a bit nerdy sometimes but he’s also on the football team!” She nodded, trailing after me. Amanda was a follower, not a leader. She needed to constantly be told what to do and when to do it by someone, and when Rachel wasn’t around I was for some reason the next best leader. Once we reached my classroom Amanda pulled me into a hug. “Thanks for the advice!” With that she ran off in the direction we came from to get to her own classroom. I wasn’t entirely sure what advice she was talking about, but whatever it was it probably wasn’t helpful.

I took my seat in Physics class, somewhere towards the back and by the window so I could stare out of it whenever I already knew whatever we were being taught, which was more often than not. After reading the brief lesson plan on the board, I decided I already knew all I needed to about linear acceleration and figured I’d have some fun.   
Focusing on what I knew Rachel’s phone looked like, I closed my eyes and pictured it in my brain. Soon after I felt the familiar click of being linked to it, and decided to flick through the recent messages to see what she was planning. It looked like she had already made a start on convincing Jason to take me to Homecoming, damn she works fast.

Rachel👸: you’re taking Roxie to Homecoming

Jason🗞: no I’m not?

Rachel👸: yes  
Rachel👸: you are  
Rachel👸: you owe me so this is how you can pay me back

Jason🗞: but why Roxie?  
Jason🗞: no offence but she’s not my type  
Jason🗞: I like girls who I can have a conversation with without their eyes glossing over

Rachel👸: which is exactly why she can’t get a date  
Rachel👸: she’s an idiot she needs all the help she can get

Jason🗞: fine  
Jason🗞: I’ll ask her at lunch

Rachel👸: no do it tomorrow and bring a corsage  
Rachel👸: a pink one

That was the end of their conversation, I’d have to check in again later to see what else she had planned. I was mildly shocked that she was telling him to ask me out with a corsage, it was almost a nice gesture? She had to be scheming something more.  
With another familiar click, I disconnected myself from Rachel’s phone and started to tune back in to whatever was happening in class.  
“Okay, so how do we calculate linear acceleration between points A and B?” Ms Warren questioned, looking at the class expectantly. Flash immediately stuck his hand up so she called on him.  
“It’s the product of sine of the angle and gravity divided by the mass.” He said confidently. He was wrong, as usual.  
“Nope.” Ms Warren responded sharply. She ignored the other students with their hands up and instead opted to pick on Peter Parker who was hunched over his desk and watching something on his laptop. I was sitting in the row behind him so I didn’t need to use my powers to see he was watching videos of Spiderman. “Peter. You still with us?”  
“Uh... Uh... Yeah, yeah… Uh…” He stumbled over his words briefly as he closed his laptop and studied the board for a second. “Mass cancels out, so it’s just gravity times sine.”  
“Right.” Ms Warren responded. “See, Flash, being the fastest isn’t always the best if you are wrong.” The class collectively let out a quiet laugh at that. I had to bite back my own smile, knowing that as funny as Flash getting owned by a teacher, being a dumb blonde I wasn’t supposed to quite get the joke.  
“You’re dead.” Flash turned around and whispered to Peter, and for a moment my heart went out to the boy. He was sweet, pretty quiet, and definitely one of the smarter students at the school. It wasn’t his fault Flash was a few brain cells short.

↞ - - - - - ↠

The moment I got home from school I grabbed a makeup wipe and washed off my face. Then I peeled myself out of the skin tight crop top and high waisted shorts I wore to school and swapped them out for some sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt. I never invited my ‘friends’ over after school, they preferred to hang out at the mall instead of someone’s house.  
I sat down to do some work on my drone. I was trying to somehow make it more compact so it wouldn't be spotted as easily when I sent it out at night. Unlike Spiderman and many other heroes, I couldn’t swing from buildings or fly, I had to run around and just hope I found something. So I purchased a drone which, using my powers, I could control remotely and hunt down the danger, this meant that I could spend more time helping people. It also had the added benefit of being able to avoid Spiderman.  
There was a knock at my door and I dropped the drone on my desk, pushing it to the side and grabbing a worksheet Ms Warren gave out as homework.  
“Come in!” I called out, and my father opened the door and entered my room.  
“Hey Rocky- sorry Roxie.” He smiled, correcting himself. “How was school today?”   
“Same old, same old.” I shrugged, scribbling some answers down without actually paying attention to what the questions were.  
“Look kiddo, I…” He sighed, sitting himself down on my bed. Uh oh. Sat down? Unsure of what to say? Something bad was about to happen. “One of your teachers called… Mr Harrington? He has some… concerns about your grades.”  
“Okay yeah I know I’m not doing as well in class as I used to but-”  
“Honey you’re failing Science.”  
“I’m what?” This was bad, this was not what I intended. Yeah, I knew I had to lower my grades, but fail? That was not part of the plan.  
“We thought you’d start improving once you had settled in, but your scores just keep on dropping, and it’s not just science. You’re close to failing math, and don’t even get me started on computer science! I know you probably have some hang ups about what happened in the past, but you shouldn’t give up on it all forever.” He rambled on while my blood felt as though it was running cold. It was like I was stuck at a crossroads, do I risk exposing my true self to my peers, possibly even the public, and ruining my future, or do I risk failing class and ruining my future? I mean it’s all good having the skills to pay the bills, which I undeniably had, but what was really important on a resume was the grades to get to university which in turn proves that I have the skills to pay the bills. I’m not going to get into a good university by just telling them that yes maybe I failed most of my classes, but look! I built a robot with my bare hands! Life doesn’t work that way.  
“I want you to really consider your future.” My father finished, standing up from my bed and making his way towards my door. “Oh! Before I forget, I have a business associate and his family coming over for dinner tonight. Don’t worry, I’ve hired a caterer so you won’t have to cook, but I would appreciate it if you would join us. They’ll be here at 6pm.”  
“I’ll make sure I look more… Presentable.” I nodded as he left, satisfied with the answer. I sighed and checked my alarm clock, I had an hour to get ready. That should be enough time.

↞ - - - - - ↠

I ended up picking a light blue dress and just putting on a little makeup with my hair in a half up, half down hairdo. I looked ready to play the part of a stereotypical businessman’s daughter who only spoke when spoken to and would one day be married off to another businessman’s son so that the companies could join together in a unionship. I’d have two perfect little all American children and the cycle would continue on. Obviously that wasn’t what I planned for the future, but I could play pretend for the night.  
The doorbell rang as I left my bedroom and made my way downstairs, my father answered the door and greeted his business associate and his family. For the second time that day I felt like everything had frozen and I was stuck. Standing at my door with her parents, looking up at me with an innocent smile was Liz Toomes. How had I not expected this? Of course it was logical that if my father’s business associate was visiting with his family that one of the family members may be a student at Midtown. Of course! But it hadn’t even crossed my mind! I wasn’t prepared for this, I didn’t know how to act or behave!  
Taking a deep breath, I smiled sweetly and continued on my way downstairs, vowing to myself that I would keep my mouth shut and just nod along with the conversation. It was the only way I’d get through this dinner without suspicion. Liz stood alongside her parents and I took my place next to my father as he guided us to the dining room, saying that dinner would be ready at any moment. When we sat down I tried to pick the seat furthest from Liz, hoping she wouldn’t try to talk to me from across the table. It didn’t take long for dinner to be served, and thankfully there was minimal talk while we all ate, I hoped that it would stay that way.  
It didn’t.  
The issues started when Mr Toomes began bragging about Liz’s accomplishments. My father, not one to be shown up, started to talk about how well I had been doing at school in Canada.  
“I’ve always been so proud of my little Rocky.” He grinned, I strained a smile in return. I would have a lot of explaining to do to Liz, maybe I could just pass it off and say I slept with the teachers to get better grades? Anything would be better than the truth. As long as I wouldn’t have to talk in front of everyone else, things would be find.  
“How are you finding Midtown, Roxana?” Mr Toomes asked with a clearly fake smile as I tried not to show the panic on my face.  
“It’s certainly different to Canada.” I nodded, hoping I could get away with just saying that. Everyone at the table looked at me expectantly and I realised they wanted me to elaborate. Shit. “Especially considering that Midtown is a school that specialises in Science and Technology. At my last school it wasn’t incredibly difficult for me to get the highest grades, but now I’m finding that my peers are on the same, and in some cases a higher level than I am. It means I have to work harder to maintain my grades but I enjoy the challenge.” I made the mistake of catching Liz’s eyes when I finished talking and she gave me a questioning look. I shook my head quickly and silently pleaded with her to not say anything in front of our parents, thankfully she complied. The conversation changed topics a few more times, but we landed right back at Liz and how well she’s doing at school.  
“Roxana, you’re not on the Decathlon team that Liz is the captain of, are you dear?” Mrs Toomes asked sweetly, clearly just being curious and not meaning any harm by her question. “Why is that?”  
“Well I wanted to ensure that I really fit in at Midtown before I made any commitments to any clubs.” I explained, it was a complete lie but I figured it sounded believable. “And now that I’ve settled in I fear that it’s too late to join, especially considering the team is about to compete at nationals.”  
“It’s never too late.” Liz said simply, a mountain of hidden meaning behind her words that the adults wouldn’t understand. 

↞ - - - - - ↠

“Care to explain what’s going on?” Liz broke the silence. My father had left the room to give Mr and Mrs Toomes a tour of the house, saying something about Liz and I catching up and talking more about this Decathlon opportunity.  
“I will but first…” I sighed, not quite knowing how I would explain everything without giving too much away. “First can you promise me that you won’t tell anyone about what you know?”  
“I promise.” I could tell she was being truthful. “I mean, I assume there’s a good reason why you’re pretending to be, no offence, a complete idiot.” For some reason unbeknownst to me, I trusted Liz. She was a sweet girl, I had looked into her and I found that she had been nothing but kind to others.   
“Back in Canada at my old school I had a group of friends who weren’t the nicest people. To put it simply they were a bunch of rebellious criminals who had all spent at least a month in juvy. I hung out with them because honestly? I was scared of them. I knew what they could do to others and I didn’t want to become just another one of their victims. I’m really good with technology and I became known as the go-to girl if you needed your grades hacked into or if you needed to blackmail the ‘popular people’ with their nudes.” Liz’s eyes widened for a second in recognition, but she gave me an encouraging nod so I continued. “To put a long story short they wanted me to use my skills to hack into someone’s bank account and get a lot of money off of them, and that’s where I put my foot down. They locked me in a room and I panicked, I tried to set the fire alarms off and I gave myself a really horrid electric shock that left me in the hospital… I almost died…” I whispered the last part and Liz put a hand on my shoulder to comfort me. “When my father and I moved I didn’t want anything like that to happen again, I didn’t want to be used by others so I figured that if everyone thought I was a dumbass they wouldn’t expect much of me. I took it a little too far but there’s no way to go back now. I mean how weird would it be if ‘Roxie’ suddenly started getting all As and joined the Robotics Club?”  
“I understand.” Liz nodded with a small, sad smile. “I won’t tell anyone, you have my word… But I do have a question…”  
“I think you deserve to have some questions given what I just told you.” I nodded, she laughed slightly but it was short lived.  
“Are you Wannabe Gossip Girl?” She asked, though I could tell she already knew the answer. I slowly nod my head in confirmation. “Why?”  
“What?”   
“Why do you do it?”  
“Rachel.” I answered simply.  
“Wait does she know?” Liz questioned, eyes wide.  
“No! God no!” I gasped. “I just… I hate her so much. I don’t think you can quite understand how completely terrible of a human being she is. Like my old friends in Canada would blackmail me into breaking the law for them, yet I’d still rather crawl back to them than spend five minutes with Rachel.”  
“So why do you hang out with her?”  
“She needs to be taken down and the best way to do that is by getting close to her, getting her to spill her guts out, and then throwing those guts out on the street. Metaphorically speaking, though she is the only person I would consider straight up murdering should I have to.” I knew I was being harsh, but Rachel deserved it.  
“I mean I know Rachel is bad news but you’re making it sound like she’s a serial killer.” Liz shook her head in disbelief.  
“Honestly, I think a serial killer deserves more respect than her.” I spat.  
“Tell me something she’s done. I just… I need to hear it from your perspective.”  
“Someone, I won’t name who, came out as gay to Rachel. I don’t know why they trusted her but they did. Rachel threatened to not only out them to the entire school, but also to their parents after they told her that their parents are incredibly homophobic and would kick them out of their house and should they find out. She now holds this information over them and threatens to ruin their life if they don’t do exactly what she tells them to when she tells them to do it. She has been doing this for three years. Three years this person has lived in hell because they trusted the wrong person.” I sighed. “I try not to post too much about other students, only if I’ve seen them do something particularly backstabbing. I’m not expecting you to completely agree with my actions, but you have to admit that the level of cheating, betraying, and blackmailing has gone down significantly since I started Midtown Madness. People know that if they cheat on their significant other, I’ll post about it and they’ll be ruined, so they don’t cheat.”  
“You’re right, I don’t agree with what you’re doing… But I understand why you’re doing it.” Liz admits with a soft nod of her head. “I have seen a change in the student population since it started, a positive change.”  
“So you really promise you won’t say anything?” I asked, hopefully.  
“I promise.” She smiled, and I knew she was being completely truthful. “So… Wanna show me all these academic awards that your dad mentioned?”


	3. Chapter 3

To blow off some steam after the panic of having Liz know part of who I really am, I decided to squeeze into my spandex and hit the roads, and hopefully some bad guys. For once, luck seemed to be on my side and I almost immediately saw a gang of men robbing a bank. They were all wearing plastic Avengers masks and I had to stop myself from cackling at the irony of the situation. As I approached, I overheard the men talking amongst themselves.  
“Yo, this high tech stuff makes it too easy.” One scoffed, using said ‘high tech stuff’ to cut open the ATM.  
“I’ll show you what's too easy.” I whispered to myself, preparing to take control of the devices so they backfired on them.  
“Told you it was worth it.” Another one of the guys said, clearly smug.  
“Okay, go, go, go.” The first one said, and I took that as my chance to also ‘go, go, go’. I focused on the device one of the men was currently using to grab and pull the front off of the ATM, only to find that my grip on it kept slipping. I tried again and again, but I couldn’t control it. It was clearly some sort of alien tech, I’d had issues controlling that in the past. Earth devices were a piece of cake, but it fried my powers whenever I tried to control anything otherworldly. I felt dejected as I watched the robbers start to bag the cash.  
“We can hit, like, five more places tonight.” One of them cheered as they made their way into the building to loot the ATMs inside. I followed them in, though I wasn’t entirely sure what I would do once I was in there. Probably give them some hearty zaps until someone who could actually arrest them came along.  
To my surprise, I saw an annoyingly familiar figure attempt to ‘casually’ pose against the wall. Spider Man. Of course he’d be here. He cleared his throat, drawing the robbers’ attention to us which for sure wasn’t my plan. Why alert them that you’re there and let them prepare to get some hits in? You’re supposed to sneak up on them and attack before they realise you’re there and have a chance to defend!  
“What’s up, guys? You forgot your PIN number?” Spider Man joked, I rolled my eyes and the robbers directed their full attention at us. “Whoa! You’re the Avengers. What are you guys doing here?” One of the robbers grabbed for his gun, but Spider Man used one of his web things to pull it out of his hand, swinging it around to hit two of the bad guys around the head. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so pissed.  
“What are you doing here?” I hissed from behind Spider Man.  
“Same thing as you!” He responded, brushing me off and returning back to talking to the robbers. “Thor. Hulk. Good to finally meet you guys. I thought you’d be more handsome in person.” He says as he throws the ‘Thor’ against the wall. I slipped out from my stance behind Spider Man and zapped ‘Hulk’ who had begun to get back up. “Can’t you do your, you know, your controlly thingy?” Spider Man questioned me.  
“Alien tech, I can’t get a good grip on it unless I really concentrate.” I explained briefly and as quietly as possible so the robbers wouldn’t hear me and report back to some higher evil about my flaws.  
“Iron Man. Hey, what are you doing robbing a bank? You’re a billionaire.” Spider Man said as he hung from the ceiling, and I honestly almost laughed at that. Almost. ‘Hulk’ began to get back up again, despite the zap I gave him, he grabbed one of the alien tech weapons and made his way towards me. Somehow, ‘Iron Man’ ended up punching him. It was a mess, but honestly what fights aren’t messy? Before either me or Spider Man could react, ‘Captain America’ grabbed another device and aimed it at Spider Man. He was suddenly suspended in the air in some sort of strange force field that adjusted his voice slightly.  
“Hey! Oh, this feels so weird.” He protests, before being thrown against the wall. ‘Captain America’ turned towards me with the same device, but I sent an electric shock to him that momentarily stopped him in his tracks, but I knew it wouldn’t last.  
“If I concentrate I might be able to fry the circuits, but I need to-” I was cut off by ‘Thor’ shooting something at me. “HEY! WATCH IT!- as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I need to not get hit by shit!” I explained to Spider Man, who gave a short nod as he stood up before promptly being caught in the force field again and being repeatedly thrown back and forth between the ceiling and floor.  
“I’m starting... to think... you’re not... the Avengers!” He called out, I rolled my eyes.  
“Stop fucking around and help me out!” I yelled at him as he was let go again.  
“Alright guys, let’s wrap this up. It’s a school night.” I was struck with a moment of panic that he knew who I was and that I had school tomorrow, but it quickly dawned on me that he was probably pretty young himself and still in school. I mean it’s not like he was a seasoned Avenger, he apparently only popped up in Queens a short time before I did.  
Taking a deep breath, I trusted that Spider Man would keep me safe, which probably wasn’t the smartest idea on my part but I didn’t really have many other options. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on one of the devices, steadying my breathing. I felt immediately when I got a good grip on it.  
“No. Wait, wait, wait!” I was snapped out of my transe by Spider Man shouting out and pushing me out of the way, practically landing on top of me. ‘Hulk’ was holding the device I’d been controlling, and a blast shot out through the building and across the road, destroying everything in its path. Across the road, the Deli burst into flame.  
“Mr Delmar.” Spider Man gasped.  
“Shit.” I sighed. We both got up and legged it across the road, though he was significantly faster than me. I watched as Spider Man pulled Mr Delmar up and assisted him out of the burning building. From the corner of a room I heard a small meow and my eyes widened, I filtered through the rubble and found a cat, scared to death. As I picked it up, its claws dug into me, but I didn’t care, I just made my way out of the store. Once I was outside I saw Spider Man and Mr Delmar, Spider Man was looking across the road at the bank we’d come from.  
“Oh come on…” He whispered to himself.  
“Double shit.” I sighed again, realising what had happened. In the time it took for us to get to the Deli and save Mr Delmar and his cat, the robbers had gotten away. “Here’s… Your cat.” I mumbled, passing the cat over to the older man.  
Spider Man and I stood in awkward silence. For a moment.  
“Uh I guess thanks for pushing me out of the way…” I said reluctantly, he gave a short nod of acknowledgement. “So… School night?”  
“I uh- I have a call I need to make.” He stuttered, running away from me as he said it. I rolled my eyes, knowing it was probably an excuse to not stick around and answer my questions. I didn’t blame him, I didn’t really want to stick around and chat either, I was just curious. I toyed with the idea of following him to wherever he was running off to, but remembered how stupidly fast he hops around the city and my tiny, pathetic little legs would struggle to keep up. Maybe I should invest in some sort of hoverboard? They make those right? Like not those ones that have wheels and are basically just electric skateboards. Actual hovering hoverboards. I mean they have portals and shit, a hoverboard is baby business compared to that, why wouldn’t they exist? I could probably control with my powers and I’d be able to get around much easier. I pulled out my phone from it’s totally secure place inside my bra and ducked into a nearby alleyway.  
“Hey Siri! Set a reminder to look into a hoverboard.” I said as quietly as possible so as not to alert anyone nearby. I noticed I’d missed a text from someone and unlocked my phone properly to read it.

Liz🌸: Hey Rocky!  
Liz🌸: Sorry, Roxie 😉

Honestly she was lucky I liked her and thought she was a decent human being, I wouldn’t have let that slide from anyone else.

Roxie👱♀️: Hi! Sorry, I was trying to study for the Chem exam.  
Roxie👱♀️: Whatsup?

Liz🌸: No problem!  
Liz🌸: I was wondering if you’d be interested in joining the Decathlon team?

Roxie👱♀️: You know I’d love to but I can’t, I gotta keep up the dumb blonde appearance.

Liz🌸: I know, but I think I might have a way around it…

Now I was really interested. I’d made my way back home by now, deciding that Spider Man was fully capable of fighting off any other bad guys that lurked in the night. Whatever steam I needed to blow off was thoroughly blown. 

Roxie👱♀️: I’ll bite, you’ve peaked my interest.

Liz🌸: So my current job is to test the team on the questions, I read them out, I tell them if they’re right or wrong yada yada yada  
Liz🌸: I was thinking I could suggest to Mr Harrington that you start reading the questions out  
Liz🌸: I could say something like “it’ll help you study in a different way that might get the information to sink in”  
Liz🌸: You know he’s a sucker for finding new ways to help students study

That was… Actually a really good idea. It’s true, Mr Harrington was always trying to push new ways of learning onto students. Lest we forget the ‘Flashcard epidemic’ a few months ago. He accidentally printed off 3000 template sheets for flashcards instead of 30, all the letters sent out to parents for the next few weeks were printed on the back of the template sheets. 

Roxie👱♀️: I’m in.

Liz🌸: Great! I’ll pitch the idea to him tomorrow!

Roxie👱♀️: Thank you so much for this.  
Roxie👱♀️: I really do appreciate it.

Liz🌸: No problem  
Liz🌸: Like I said, I might not agree with everything you’re doing but I understand your reasoning  
Liz🌸: If I can help with anything else just let me know

Fingers crossed the plan works. If I can get on the Decathlon team, even if it’s just reading out the questions and saying “yes” or “no”, it’s something I can put on a college application. Plus I can tell my father about it and he’ll hopefully be less concerned about how I’m doing in school. Maybe, just maybe, this might actually work out.


	4. Chapter 4

Once I was home, I got dressed in some pajamas and tried to turn on my television. Then I tried to turn it on again, and again, and again until I eventually gave in and used the remote. Great. My powers were fried again. Perfect. Awesome. Cool.

So even if I did want to investigate the S.H.I.E.L.D. database to see who Spider-Man really was and if my new hunch was correct and he was a Midtown student, I couldn’t. I didn’t know when my powers would be up and running again, but it would take a good few days at least after that shock. Damn alien tech, fucking everything up. I mindlessly flicked through channels to find something good to watch and eventually landed on the news.

“The beloved Queens’ institution, Delmar’s Sandwiches, was destroyed in an explosion earlier tonight after an ATM robbery was thwarted by Queens’ two own colorful local crime-stoppers, the Spider-Man and Katalyst. As the crime-fighting duo attempted to foil their heist, a powerful blast was set off, slicing through the bodega across the street. Miraculously, no one was harmed.” The reporter readout. I rolled my eyes at the fact that we were called a ‘duo’. We weren’t Tom and Jerry, or Ren and Stimpy, or Iron Man and his ego. We were two separate crime fighters who just so happened to be fighting the same crime. That’s it. I had tried so hard to dissociate myself from Spider-Man, I built drones so I could avoid him for god sake! How clear could I make it? I guess the news reporters had no way of knowing that but I was offended nonetheless. On the plus side, they actually spelled my name correctly this time. After using their own boss’ email address to send the entire company just the words ‘It’s Katalyst, not Catalyst! K-A-T-A-L-Y-S-T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Get it right next time or I’ll shut down all broadcasts for a week!’ I honestly had no idea if I actually had the power or ability to do that, but it seemed to have worked. Just another notch on my belt that could probably be used against me in a court of law.

↞ - - - - - ↠

I decided to walk to school the next day so I could walk past the deli and sneakily check out how things were going there. It was busy, agents, cops, and god knows whoever else practically swarmed the bank and deli. I almost literally walked into Ned and Peter who had stopped to stare at the wreckage.

“Do you lay eggs?” Ned asked Peter, which definitely threw me off.

“What? No!” Peter chuckled until he spotted me behind the pair of them. He nudged Ned who looked over his shoulder.

“Oh hi, Roxie!” He smiled politely. Ned was sweet, I had nothing against him- quite literally. I couldn’t track down a single bad word he’d said about anyone aside from calling someone ‘weird’ once, and even then it was more of a suggestion than a statement.

“Hey, Ned! Peter!” I smiled, making sure I used the voice that made me sound like I was completely spaced out. “Did you see the security thingy on the news? I can’t believe people would steal money like why not just withdraw it, right?”

“Right…” Peter nodded slowly, I could tell he didn’t want to agree with my dumb statement but he knew he’d just be explaining the concept of poverty to me for the next hour. “Uh come on Ned, we need to get to school early for that… Thing.”

“What thing?” Ned asked, not picking up on Peter’s very obvious hints that he didn’t want to talk or be anywhere near me. The boy was lucky I knew how to play dumb so well or I’d have called him out on it.

“You know, the thing that we need to get there early for,” Peter repeated, gently nudging Ned who suddenly nodded.

“Oh yeah, that… thing.” He said, following Peter who was now walking away. “See you at school Roxie!”

“Bye!” I called out with a vacant smile plastered on my face. Once they were out of eyesight I dropped the smile and sighed, looking around at the people working on the ATM robbery case. I felt guilty, which is something I hadn’t felt in a while. I was almost certain I was the cause of the Deli burning down. If I hadn’t tried to override the alien tech that I knew already was too advanced for my powers to cope with, maybe it wouldn’t have sent out that blast. I knew I’d struggle and something bad would happen yet I let my pride get the best of me, I wanted to prove to Spider-Man of all people that I was strong and while I couldn’t climb walls or run fast my powers were useful elsewhere.

Speaking of my powers, I tried to see how much they’d recharged overnight during my very restless sleep. I focused on one of the agents by the ATM machines who was on his phone, maybe I could gather a little more information if I used my powers to listen in on his call. I pulled out my own phone and opened twitter so I looked like I had just stopped in the middle of the street to check my phone because I was an inconsiderate teen. I focused my energy and pushed it towards the agent’s phone, I felt a connection for a fleeting second but it fizzled out quickly. From that same direction, I heard a small screech and looked up. The man had dropped his phone which was now clearly broken judging by the fact that it was singed and smoking. Shit. One of the other agents a meter away from him started laughing.

“Told you to get an iPhone! Those androids are fire hazards!”

↞ - - - - - ↠

“She’s got to be the least cool superhero out of the lot, I mean what even are her powers? Electricity? She’s basically just a walking outlet.” Rachel droned on, pushing her lunch around her plate instead of actually eating it. “And that costume! It looks like she just glued shreds of fabric together, she looks so frumpy!”

“You’re so right.” Amanda agreed eagerly, nodding her head up and down. “Totes not fashionable.”

“Gross, who uses the word ‘totes’ anymore? Get in the 21st Century Amanda.” Rachel rolled her eyes.

“You’re right, sorry Rachel,” Amanda mumbled, now also pushing her food around instead of eating it. The pair of them made me sick sometimes, Amanda did anything she could to get Rachel’s approval, yet Rachel would do anything she could to drag Amanda down. It was like watching Gretchen and Regina in Mean Girls sometimes, which I guess would make me Karen and Megan would be Cady. Nah, Megan is way too sweet to be Cady.

“What do you think of Katalyst, Roxie?” Amanda piped up, bubbly as ever again as if she’d completely forgotten what just happened.

“Is that the new exchange student? Like... The one from Russia?” I asked, twirling my hair around my finger. “He’s kinda cute.”

“No stupid, God Roxie learn to listen.” Rachel huffed, rolling her eyes again. “Katalyst is that wannabe superhero who’s all buddy-buddy with Spider-Man.” No, I most certainly was not.

“You’re thinking of Kyrylo, and he’s from Ukraine, not Russia.” Megan smiled at me. “I don’t actually think Katalyst is that bad, I mean she’s stopped a lot of crime.”

“Of course you would think that.” Rachel sighed, standing up. “Well, I’m bored of looking at this poor excuse that the school calls ‘food’. I need to reapply my lipstick before next period. Amanda?”

“Coming!” Amanda stood up and hurried after Rachel who was already halfway through the cafeteria because people would part to make way for her like Moses and the red sea. But instead of Moses, it was a girl dressed in all pink with a scowl that could sour milk, and instead of the red sea, it was a room full of hormonal teens.

“I better go make sure they don’t terrorize the freshmen.” Megan smiles sadly, standing up. “See you later Roxie.” 

↞ - - - - - ↠

Thankfully my next period was gym class, which didn’t have my ‘friends’ in it. Coach Wilson had us all sat on the bleachers watching a video of Captain America explaining what we would be doing this lesson because apparently the school system assumes all gym coaches are unable to actually speak for themselves.

“Hi. I’m Captain America. Whether you’re in the classroom or on the battlefield, fitness can be the difference between success or failure. Today, my good friend, your gym teacher,” Captain America pointed off to the left of the screen, though Coach Wilson was stood on the right-hand side of it. “Will be conducting the Captain America Fitness Challenge.” He raised his hand in a salute and the screen faded to show a title-card that read ‘sit-ups’. 

“Thank you, Captain. I’m pretty sure this guy’s a war criminal now, but whatever. I have to show these videos. It’s required by the state. Let’s do it.” Coach Wilson said before blowing his whistle.

“Um, Coach? Whats a sit-up?” I asked, causing some people around me to laugh.

“You… Sit up?” Coach Wilson looked confused by the question.

“Oh, okay!” I cheered, sitting on a map and keeping my back straight. “So just this, yeah?”

“No, you need to lie down and then sit up.” Coach tried to explain, most people had begun their own sit-ups and weren’t paying much attention. I laid down and then sat back up again, using my hands as though I were just sitting up in bed.

“Sit-ups are so easy!” I giggled, the Coach just stared at me in defeat, clearly wanting to help other students and not be stuck teaching me the basics.

“You know what, you’re right. You’re so good at sit-ups I don’t think you need to take part in this lesson. Why don’t you go sit on the bleachers and watch?” He told me, I smiled and nodded, jumping up and making my way over to where Liz, Charles, and Jason were sat. I wasn’t sure how they managed to avoid participating in the lesson but I didn’t really care enough to ask.

“Now, see, for me, it would be F Thor, marry Iron Man, and kill Hulk,” Betty said as I sat down.

“Hulk is the big green ogre guy, isn’t he?” I asked. “Wait no that’s Shrek…”

“Well he is big and green, so you’re half right.” Liz smiled at me, playing along with my dumb act very well.

“Well, what about the Spider-Man?” Charles asked, my interest was mildly peaked at this but I didn’t show it.

“It’s just Spider-Man,” Liz corrected. “and did you guys see the bank security cam on YouTube? He and Katalyst fought off four guys.”

“Oh my God, she’s crushing on Spider-Man.” Betty laughed slightly.

“No way!” Charles shook his head, but Liz just shrugged.

“Kind of?” She admitted with a small grin.

“Ugh, gross.” Betty groaned.

“Yeah! Spiders are so creepy!” I agreed. It was a complete lie, I thought spiders were actually really cute and I hoped to have a pet tarantula one day, but almost everything I said as Roxie was a lie.

“He’s probably like, thirty.” Betty pointed out, I knew this wasn’t true but obviously I didn’t say anything.

“You don’t even know what he looks like.” Charles pointed out. “Like, what if he’s, like, seriously burned?”

“I wouldn’t care. I would still love him for the person he is on the inside.” Liz affirmed.

“If his name is Spider-Man then what if he’s just a bunch of spiders on the inside?” I gasped. “Ew gross! That’s so gross! I don’t want to think about that! Yuck!”

“Peter knows Spider-Man!” Ned suddenly called out from a few meters away. Everyone’s attention was on them now, Peter scrambled to stand up. 

“No, I don’t. No. I... I mean…” He stuttered.

“They’re friends,” Ned confirmed, seemingly making things worse for Peter. I was now very interested in this situation. If my suspicions about Spider-Man being a student at Midtown, and Peter knew him, it was probably one of his friends. Now to track down who his friends are other than Ned.

“Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends,” Flash said sarcastically after sliding down from the rope he had previously been climbing.

“Wait Coach Wilson knows Captain America?” I whispered to Betty, who turned and gave me a sweet and sympathetic smile.

“No, he’s not, it’s a joke.” She explained softly, I got the feeling that Betty saw me as a little kid shes babysitting or something.

“I’ve met him. Yeah. A couple times.” Peter eventually managed to spit out. “But it’s, um... through the Stark internship. Mm-hmm... Yeah, well. I’m not really supposed to talk about it.” He was lying, that much was very obvious to me. Whether he was lying about how he knew Spider-Man, or about knowing him at all was the real question. Ned seemed like the sort of person who was incapable of lying, at least for a long period of time, so I settled for assuming that Peter was lying about how he knew Spider-Man. That would make sense if he really was a Midtown student, Peter is trying to keep his cover and throw people off the scent. The explanation he gave about the Stark internship was definitely plausible.

“Well, that’s awesome. Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz’s party. Right?” Flash joked, looking over at Liz for a response.

“I’m having people over tonight. You’re more than welcome to come.” She told Peter.

“Having a party?” He mumbled in response, looking slightly dazed at the idea.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be dope. You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man.” Flash laughed.

“It’s okay. I know Peter’s way too busy for parties anyway, so…” Liz tried to get Peter out of the hole he and Ned had dug like the angel she is.

“Come on. He’ll be there. Right, Parker?” Flash questioned, getting closer to Peter in what was probably an attempt to intimidate him, but Flash looked about as intimidating as a puppy in a Christmas jumper so I don’t know how much it worked. At that moment, the bell buzzed to signify the end of the period. The group of us on the bleachers stood up and followed the crowd to the changing rooms.

“Roxie you’re invited to the party tonight too! I forgot to mention it yesterday.” Liz told me before leaning in a little closer. “You know who and her cronies won’t be there.”

“I’ll be there.” I smiled, for once I was actually looking forward to a party. If Spider-Man really did make an appearance, maybe Katalyst would too? It might throw him off enough to give me a hint at who he really was underneath the mask. At the very least I could scan the crowd and see if anyone mysteriously went missing the moment he showed up.

↞ - - - - - ↠

The party actually wasn’t too bad. Since starting at Midtown the only other parties I had been to were ones Rachel had dragged me along to, where the clothes were very sparse but the underage drinking was in abundance. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be a drop of alcohol at this party, just a lot of pizza. The one downside was Flash’s horrifying attempt at DJing. He had recorded himself saying “D-D-DJ Flash” and played it every minute or so over every single song.

I wasn’t entirely sure how to dress for the party, so I decided to play it safe and just wear something I’d normally wear to school with some higher heels and a little more makeup. Thank god for YouTube, I would have been lost without the millions of makeup tutorials. As controversial as the YouTube beauty gurus almost all are, at least they were helpful.

I stuck by Liz most of the night, thankfully I looked like a puppy just trailing after its owner, I’d truly mastered the ‘brain dead behind the eyes’ look.

“Oh, my gosh.” Liz suddenly gasped, I turned to see what she was looking at. Ned and Peter had actually shown up to the party, which meant Spider-Man probably wouldn’t be too far behind. “Hey, guys. Cool hat, Ned.”

“Yeah! It frames your face super well.” I nodded with a grin. One reason for the compliment was because I just wanted to be seen as a lackey who does whatever the leader says, and in Rachel’s absence, Liz was my leader so I’d agree with everything she says. Another reason for the compliment was because if Peter knew Spider-Man, and Ned knows that Peter knows, maybe there was a chance that Ned knew who he was too? The final reason for the compliment was because it was true, the hat did frame his face well and he was rocking it.

“Hi, Liz and Roxie.” Ned smiled, I think he was slightly thrown off by my presence.

“Hi, Liz.” Peter’s voice was a higher pitch than normal and he completely ignored me, but it was obvious why and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. He was clearly head over heels for Liz, and honestly? I didn’t blame him. Hell, I’m pretty sure I had a small crush on her myself.

“I’m so happy you guys came.” She told the pair. “There’s pizza and drinks. Help yourself.”

“There’s so much pizza, it’s crazy.” I nodded with a grin.

“What a great party,” Peter noted it was actually kind of adorable watching him talk to Liz. He was so awkward and star-struck. I had a hard time keeping myself from laughing because it would have been so out of character for Roxie. Luck seemed to be on my side as something shattered somewhere in the distance, distracting everyone.

“Oh, I... My parents will kill me if anything’s broken. I gotta-” Liz mumbled apologetically. “Have fun!”

“And some pizza!” I called out as we left and I followed her through the crowd. Before we got to the source of the chaos I tapped Liz on the shoulder, making sure I kept my voice low so no one would hear me. “Hey I don’t feel too great, I think I ate too much. It’s been a while since I went to a party where the food wasn’t just a slice of lime that came with a shot and some salt so I went a little awol.”

“Oh don’t worry about it! Thank you for coming.” She gave me a quick hug. “Have you got a safe way to get home? I can get you an Uber?”

“I don’t live too far from here, I can walk it. The fresh air and exercise will probably do me some good. Besides, with Spider-Man lurking about nearby, I’m sure I’ll be safe.” I laughed, nudging her teasingly with my elbow.

“Okay, okay! If you’re sure.” She giggled along with me. “Text me when you get home safe though, yeah?”

“Of course. Thank you... for everything.” I gave her another hug before slipping my way through the crowd and out the front door. As I reached the end of the driveway I was stopped by a voice.

“Roxie!” I turned around to see Jason jogging towards me.

“Oh hi!” I smiled, switching the Roxie voice back on. “What’s up?”

“Are you heading out?” He asked. I nodded. “Not even going to stay to see Spider-Man? I thought that girls were all over the whole superhero thing?”

“No, I’m scared he’s actually just all spiders and no man,” I explained, referring back to the conversation on the bleachers. “And I need to get beauty sleep or my skin might fall off, at least that's what Rachel says.”

“I don’t know why you hang out with her.” He shook his head, looking down at the floor. “It’s like you’re a different person when you’re with Liz.”

“What?” I asked, trying not to let my nervousness betray me in my voice. I hoped he meant that I was nicer because I was copying Liz’s kindness as opposed to Rachel’s bitchiness, but something told me that’s not what he meant.

“I heard you saying goodbye to her.” He admitted, and I had to stop myself from visibly wincing at his words. “I didn’t realise it was you talking at first, even your voice was different.”

“I- I don’t know what you mean.” I lied, plastering another smile on my face.

“Nevermind.” He shook his head, dropping the topic. I almost let out a physical sigh of relief instead of just a mental one. “Um… This probably isn’t the best way or place to ask but do you want to go to Homecoming with me?” I was expecting it to happen but not at that moment.

“O-Oh! Yeah! Yeah totally!” I nodded. “That would be cool.”

“Awesome, I’ll uh… I’ll text you?” It was more of a question than a statement, so I nodded again. “Well, bye…” I waved goodbye as he returned back to the party. Well, that wasn’t good, my cover was slipping further and further. Luckily for me, I had the perfect distraction in the form of the crumpled up suit and goggle mask thing I had stuffed into a backpack and into a hedge just down the road from Liz’s place. Surely anyone else who might have overheard me talking to Liz would forget how weird that was when Katalyst rocked up and started eating pizza.

As I reached the hedge where my backpack had been hidden, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. Off in the distance, a neon blue light shone, it looked suspiciously like the same light that came from the alien tech last night.

“Aw shit, here we go again.” I sighed to myself. Looks like Katalyst’s pizza plans had to be put on hold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ↞ - - - - - ↠
> 
> did I just quote a meme at the end?? mayhaps
> 
> please leave a kudos and maybe comment to let me know if you enjoy this story... or hate it... just any sort of recognition that someone is actually reading it would be great


	5. Chapter 5

↞ - - - - - ↠

I ran to the source of the blue light as fast as I could, which wasn’t particularly fast as my feet were aching after wearing such high heels at the party and my legs were like tiny little nubs thanks to my shorter than average height. Eventually, I did make it to where three men were crowded around a van, which was probably not something you wanted to encounter in any situation. I watched as one of the men walked to the back of the open van.  
“Okay, I got, uh, black hole grenades, Chitauri railguns…” He listed off, I assumed he was trying to sell said items. I studied the back of the van, flipping some lenses on my goggles down that worked as microscopes so I could see a little clearer what the gear was. The entire van was full of tech, part of me was incredibly excited, but the other more logical part knew that this was bad bad news. Chances are, the robbers back at the ATM issue had gotten their tech from this guy or someone associated with him, and that hadn’t exactly worked out well for me last time. Nor had it worked out for Spider-Man, who I had suddenly noticed was hanging from the opposite side of the bridge. Great, that was just what I needed, another opportunity for us to step on one another's feet and let a group of dangerous men with dangerous gear get away.   
“You letting off shots in public now? Hurry up. Look, times are changing. We’re the only ones selling these high-tech weapons.” One of the other men said to the third man, okay so there were two people selling and one person buying. To make things easier in my head I labeled the first man Seller 1, the bald man Seller 2, and the person purchasing the gear would be the Buyer. No fancy nicknames needed, just something that would help me remember who played which role in this transaction.   
“I need something to stick up somebody.” The Buyer explained, looking a little bit fed up. “I’m not trying to shoot them back in time.” That was mildly reassuring, but still not great. This was America where guns were available in the same shops that sell bread, why bother with the hassle of tracking down people with alien technology?   
“I got anti-grav climbers.” Seller 1 mentioned, still rooting through the gear in the back of the van.  
“Yo, climbers?” The Buyer was suddenly more interested in what the duo had to offer. I studied what I could see of the gear from my viewpoint, which admittedly wasn’t much, before flipping the lenses back away from my eyes so I could see normally. I had made the mistake once of trying to fight someone with the microscope lenses and I suffered for it, both in injuries and motion sickness. Suddenly, a yodeling ringtone- which side note, out of everything why the hell would you pick that?- rang out from Spider-Man’s direction. That idiot really brought his phone to a fight? I thought he was supposed to be a little smarter than that, what an amateur move!  
“Okay, what the hell was that?” Seller 1 questioned, looking around. I tried to focus in and shut the ringtone off before they tracked down the source of it, but the moment I tried I was reminded that my powers were absolutely fried. Here I was calling Spider-Man an amateur for bringing his phone to a fight when I didn’t even bring my powers to the fight. I was essentially now just a shorter than average 15-year-old girl in workout gear, what use would I be in a fight with three grown-ass men with a seemingly unlimited supply of high-tech gear?  
“Did you set us up?” Seller 2 suddenly aimed a gun at the Buyer, who held his hands up in defense.  
“Hey, hey, man.” He tried to reason. Luckily for him, Spider-Man flipped down from the bridge and grabbed the trio’s attention.  
“Hey! Hey, come on. You gonna shoot at somebody, shoot at me.” He told Seller 2. Probably not the wisest idea to give someone permission to shoot you, but it’s not like I could stop him.  
“All right.” Seller 2 smirked, aiming his gun at Spider-Man now, but before he got the chance to actually shoot, Spider-Man shot a web and grabbed the gun straight out of his hand. I was admittedly quite impressed by that. Seller 1 grabbed something out of the back of the van, one of the high-tech weapons I assumed. From the weapon shot a burst of energy that threw Spider-Man back and into the concrete bridge which looked like it definitely hurt. It looked like Seller 1 was about to blast Spider-Man again, and without thinking I jumped out.  
“Maybe don’t shoot anyone? How about that?” I called out, running forward and kicking the weapon out of his hands. It fell to the ground but he reached back and pulled out a board that looked like a snowboard or something, he threw it on the ground and went to step on it but I’d grabbed the first weapon he had dropped by this point.  
“Didn’t your mommy ever teach you not to play with things you don’t understand?” Seller 1 sneered at me, abandoning the idea of the board and walking towards me, clearly not scared of the fact that I had one of his weapons.  
“Ha! The only thing my mom taught me was how to get free drinks at a bar.” I snorted, shaking the weapon around to try and get it to work.  
“Come on!” Seller 2 suddenly called out, now in the driver’s seat. By this point, the Buyer had hopped into his own car and made off. I wasn’t too fussed by that, he hadn’t actually bought anything so he wasn’t too much of a threat, unlike the two sellers.  
Seller 1 sighed and grabbed the weapon out of my hands, holding it up above him so I couldn’t reach it again while he ran to the back of the van. He aimed and took a shot at me as the van began to drive off, thankfully I had managed to duck behind the bridge and into a bush so it hit the foundation of the bridge instead of me. It wasn’t until the van was almost out of sight that I saw Spider-Man being dragged by it, he seemed to have shot the web himself so it was at least intentional. Part of me was relieved he was okay, which was definitely a new feeling, and the other part was pissed off that they were all getting away and I had absolutely nothing to show from it aside from a couple scrapes from the bush I had hidden in.  
Once the coast was completely clear I slipped out and scanned the ground for any sign or hint of who they were and where they might have been going to and/or coming from. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised when I found something much better. It was the board Seller 1 had begun to stand on before he was interrupted, in their rush to get away he must have left it.  
This was exactly what I needed, I could only help that it would be a missing piece in the puzzle to my powers. If I could take it apart and analyze the inner workings of a piece of alien tech, I might be able to work out how to control it. I knew not every piece of tech would be wired the same way as this, but it would definitely be a start.  
I picked it up, tucked it under my arm, and began my journey back to where I’d left my bag which was just down the road from Liz’s house. After about 5 minutes of walking, I was already fed up.  
“I wish you were a skateboard,” I mumbled to the board, which buzzed under my arm ominously. “Or a hoverboard.” It started buzzing louder. Unsure of what was happening, I placed it back on the ground cautiously. “What do you want me to do? Stand on you?” The board buzzed even more so I took that as a yes, carefully standing on it. It started to slowly rise up, with a very wobbly me on it.   
“Okay! Okay! That’s high enough for now I think!” I called out after rising to about a meter off the ground. This was cool, this was very cool, but I didn’t feel comfortable testing out just what I could do with the board while I was out in public. I still had a reputation to maintain, I didn’t want it all over the news that I was flying around Queens on a hoverboard, clinging for my dear life and screaming bloody murder. Especially since the board didn’t technically belong to me, that would be like pinning a big red flag to my back that just said ‘just fuck me up fam’.  
“Let’s go back down to the ground now, I’ll test you out some more later.” The board seemed to be satisfied with that, sinking back down until I felt it touch down on the ground again. I picked it up again with care and tucked it back under my arm. If I could actually unwire and rewire it in a way that meant I could connect with it using my powers, it would be a gamechanger once I got the hang of it. No more running around the city and getting out of breath before a big fight, travel would be a piece of cake!  
What wasn’t a piece of cake was the walk back to my bag. The run to the scene of the action wasn’t nearly as bad as this because it was mostly all downhill, now I had to walk uphill with blisters covering my feet and scratches all up and down my legs from the bush. It was at that moment that I realized my suit was torn in multiple places on my legs. Maybe it was time for an upgrade? It’s not like I was short on money, I could afford some decent and hopefully more durable material. The only issue was my lack of sewing ability because hot glue just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. I guess I could look up a tutorial on sewing for beginners? Thank god for YouTube.  
“Is that Katalyst?” I had almost made it to my bag, I was about 20 meters away from it, but of course, I had to get there at the same moment a group of people had decided to leave the party. More specifically, I had to get there at the same moment Flash and his cronies were leaving the party.  
“Dude it so is!” Flash gasped. “Hey! Can we get a picture?” He called out, waving his arms to grab my attention as if their voices weren’t obnoxiously loud enough as it was.  
“Gee! What should I do? Fight crime or take a picture with a group of teenagers? Wow, I wonder which one is more important!” I scoffed, shaking my head and walking away from them and further towards my bag.  
“You could have just said no.” One of the other boys mumbled, kicking his feet a little.  
“Look, just steer clear of me and this road, go a different way. There are dangerous people out tonight.” It was only a partial lie. The group actually listened to me, turning around and walking off in the opposite direction, whispering things amongst themselves. I felt a little bad for being such a bitch to them beforehand, but then I remembered what dickheads Flash and his friends are and I felt a little bit better. Once I had decided they were far enough away I went and grabbed my bag, slinging it over one of my shoulders. As I had said to Liz earlier, it wasn’t too far for me to walk from her house to my own and my bag wasn’t far from her house, I’d just try and swerve around the back of people’s houses so no other stragglers from the party see me walk straight to my house and add two and two together.

↞ - - - - - ↠

“Did you get some action last night or something?” Rachel suddenly asked me at lunchtime the next day.  
“Huh?” For once I was actually confused by what she was saying, not just pretending to be confused.  
“You’re walking strangely.” She elaborated with a cocky smirk on her face. Realization dawned on me that she was just ‘subtly’ trying to ask me if I had sex last night because thanks to my heels, the bush I had hidden in, and the walk to and from the bridge I had a pretty noticeable limp.  
“Ohhh like sex?” I asked she nodded. “Nah my heel broke after the party, so I had to walk home with only one heel and now my feet have these gross red bumps that really hurt when I walk.”  
“You didn’t just break off the other heel so you weren’t walking like an idiot? Did no one think to give you a ride home?” Rachel questioned, I shook my head. She was a surprisingly good actress, it was almost like she actually cared about my well-being, but she didn’t. “How was the party?”  
“There was so much pizza there it was crazy! I didn’t even know you could order that much at once.” I smiled, knowing that she really didn’t care about the food.  
“Was there any drama?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.   
“I don’t know, I left pretty early because I ate way too much and felt gross.” I sighed. “Oh! Jason asked me to homecoming!” I hadn’t actually remembered that happening until just then.  
“Told you he would.” Rachel smirked, I still didn’t quite know what she was trying to gain by ‘setting us up’ but I had no doubt I’d learn her ulterior motives within due time. “I told Amanda I’d help her practice for her audition for drama class, she actually thinks she has a shot at being Juliet! Can you believe that? God, I can’t wait to see her crash and burn.”  
“That’s cool, I have to try and find where shop class is again. Which isn’t a class where you go shopping like I first thought.” I had mainly picked shop class as an elective because I knew there was no way Rachel would be there, and I desperately needed at least a little bit of time away from her during the school day or else I would go insane.  
“Talk to you soon Roxie! Loves ya!” Rachel told me, blowing me a quick kiss as she stood up. She began walking away but turned around again, making sure she had an excuse to be loud enough for other people to hear. “Oh and maybe lay off the pizza next time, you look like you’ve gained some weight.” With that, she spun back around and left the cafeteria. I was very aware of the people at the tables nearby who had started whispering to one another and pointing at me, laughing amongst themselves. She was such a bitch.

↞ - - - - - ↠

I barely paid attention in shop class. Even if I found what was happening interesting, I couldn’t outwardly show it as Roxie. All I wanted was to be at home with the hoverboard I had picked up last night, taking it apart to see how it works. But alas, I had to wait until the end of the day and just hope that Rachel doesn’t try to drag me off to Zumba class after school to work off some of the weight I had apparently gained overnight.  
Before I could dwell too much on how much I absolutely despised Rachel, I was distracted by a purple glow coming from the desk in front of me. It wasn’t a normal LED glow either, this was something strange and it immediately caught my interest. Peter Parker and Ned Leeds were the pair working on whatever it was, they were keeping their voices low but since I was almost directly behind them I could just about make out what they were saying.  
“Some guy tried to vaporize me with it,” Peter told Ned, which piqued my interest even more. Vaporize? What was Peter Parker doing almost getting vaporized?   
“Seriously?” Ned didn’t seem too shocked, just amazed.  
“Yeah,” Peter responded.  
“Awesome.” Ned grinned, Peter turned to him and raised his eyebrow. “I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary.” Ned clarified clumsily. The pair returned to looking at the purple glowing object that Peter was trying to pry out of some device. It was definitely alien-tech, I could tell that with just a glance.   
“Well, look, I think it’s a power source,” Peter explained.   
“Yeah, but it’s connected to all these microprocessors.” Ned pointed out. “That’s an inductive charging plate. That’s what I use to charge my toothbrush.”  
“Whoever’s making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours.” Peter decided, which completely baffled me. First off, how did he know what alien tech looks like? Secondly how did he even get his hands on some? And finally, what the hell was he doing to almost get vaporized by it? Sure he had the Stark internship, but I knew that even Tony Stark had at least a shred of common sense in him to keep a teenage boy away from dangerous items and people. Something told me that maybe Peter wasn’t just ‘friends’ with Spider-Man.  
I tried to sneak a closer look without drawing any attention to myself, but instead I fell off my chair. Everyone was staring at me but no one made a move to actually help me up so I picked myself up and dusted myself off.  
“I’m fine!” I smiled at the classmates who were still watching me with mild concern, they soon got back to their own work. Mr Hapgood hadn’t seemed to have actually noticed my fall at all, he was far too engrossed in his puzzle book. Peter and Ned hadn’t been too concerned about me either, they’d returned to their conversation almost immediately. I didn’t catch much more of what they were saying, but I did overhear that they planned to make their way to the lab to run some more tests on the energy core at the end of the day. Looks like I’d be spending my time afterschool lurking around the lab.

↞ - - - - - ↠

I had been waiting in the hallway for Peter and Ned to make their way to the lab before I followed them. I had reviewed multiple different ways to either listen in on what they were saying or watch them and I’d settled for lurking outside the lab and if someone saw me I’d pretend I lost my jacket or something and I was on the hunt for it and make my way into the lab. Maybe then I could play dumb as usual and ask the pair what that ‘cool purple glowy thingy’ is, watch them struggle to come up with a lie just for shits and giggles. Originally, I planned to use my powers to look in through the security cams, but my powers still weren’t recharged enough for that and the cameras didn’t have microphones so I’d only be able to watch what they were doing which probably wouldn’t provide me with the answers to my many questions.  
When Peter and Ned finally exited shop class I began trailing after them. Midtown had a couple different labs so I had to double check which one they were actually going to. I was only a few meters behind them when the two sellers from the bridge suddenly rounded the corner. What the fuck were they doing at a highschool? Apparently, Peter was just as shocked to see them as he jumped behind a wall at in-human speeds that I’d only seen from one other person, motioning for Ned to join him.  
The two sellers made their way to shop class, mumbling between themselves. They were tracking whatever high-tech device Peter, or I guess I should say Spider-Man had stolen from them last night. Panic struck every inch of my body when I realised that I had done the same thing. If they were tracking this piece, what’s to say they wouldn’t go after the hoverboard? What if they’d already gone after it and realised that only one girl lives in that house and that girl must be Katalyst? I took a deep breath, trying to push the fear away. If that happened, I’d find a way to deal with it later, but right now I need to figure out how to deal with this situation. Peter had decided to follow the pair down the stairs to shop class, why he did that I have no idea, but I just hoped he had a plan while he was down there. Ned had been distracted by the students in Chess Club who had seen him outside the window and were now questioning him as to why he was lurking about. While he was preoccupied, I slipped past him and lightly jogged to the top of the shop class stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible.  
Of course, fate had other plans for me and my phone began blasting out Wannabe by Spice Girls which meant Rachel was calling me. It dawned on me that this might actually be a good distraction for Peter and the sellers, or at least an indirect warning for them to get the hell out and get the hell out quickly.  
“Hi Rach!” I cheered after answering the phone, making sure I was louder than normal without making it too obvious that I was trying to be loud. The halls were empty which meant my voice echoed more than usual which was a bonus.  
“Where the fuck are you? I waited for ten whole minutes in my car for you!” Rachel practically screamed down the phone.  
“Sorry! I lost my jacket!” I lied. “And then I forgot what lessons I had today so I had to check every classroom to try and find it! I’m about to go down and check shop though which I think is the last place.”  
“You had it at lunch and your only lesson this afternoon was shop yet that’s the last place you check?” Rachel scoffed, infuriated by my feigned stupidity. I pretended not to see the two men sneaking out of the classroom, I’d turned my back as soon as I saw the door open so they wouldn’t know that I’d seen them.  
“I forgot what classes I had!” I protested with a fake pout.  
“Urgh whatever. I left so you have to walk home.” Rachel huffed before hanging up on me. Part of me wanted to celebrate that I wouldn’t be stuck in the car with her and dragged off somewhere other than my house, but then I remembered my blisters and for what was probably the first and last time in my life, I wished Rachel was there.  
So as not to seem even more suspicious and just out of curiosity I decided to make my way down to shop class since Peter hadn’t actually left yet. I almost bumped into him at the bottom of the stairs, but he managed to dodge out of the way before that happened.  
“Hi Peter! Have you seen my jacket?” I questioned with a vacant smile.  
“Uh… The one around your waist?” He asked, pointing at my jacket.  
“Oh my god! I’ve been looking everywhere for it! Duh Roxie!” I laughed, he gave me a weary smile. “Thanks for the help!” I spun around and made my way back up the stairs, waving at Ned as I passed him at the top. I heard Peter follow behind me to meet up with Ned again.  
“Did she see them?” He asked, trying to whisper, but as I mentioned before, the empty hallways echoed.  
“No, they left when they heard her on the phone.” Peter explained. I took silent pride in the fact that my unplanned phone call worked to our advantage. Now I just needed my powers to recharge completely so I could double check what I already suspected.

Peter Parker wasn’t just friends with Spider-Man.   
Peter Parker was Spider-Man.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me taking almost a year long break from writing? It’s more likely than you’d think.  
> I just want to thank everyone who has been patient with me and with this story, I really hope you like this chapter!

↞ - - - - - ↠

I had gotten about 10 meters from the school before a car pulled up next to me and rolled down its window.  
“Need a ride?” Jason asked. I considered saying no, but my blisters screamed yes so I walked around the back of the car to get in the passenger’s seat on the other side.  
“Thanks.” I tried to sound as genuine as I could while still keeping the “minus one brain cell” Roxie that everyone was used to.   
“I meant to give you this when I asked you to homecoming,” Jason mumbled, reaching towards the backseat and grabbing a box with a baby pink and white rose corsage in it. “I know you’re supposed to give it to your date on the day, but I figured this way you could match your dress to it.” I knew that Rachel had straight up told him to give me the corsage when he asked me, but I was still almost touched at the thought that he had put behind the reasoning. I was also actually quite shocked at how pretty the corsage was, I was worried when I knew it would be pink that it would end up being hot Barbie sort of pink, but it had more coral undertones. The flowers were clearly artificial but I preferred that since it would last longer. Overall, I liked it.  
“That’s... really sweet, thank you.” I smiled as he started to drive.  
“See, there’s the Roxie that I saw last night.” My eyes widened as I realised I had dropped the act for a split second. “I don’t know why you feel the need to act the way you do. It’s like it dehumanizes you, but right then? I saw an actual human with emotions and a brain, no offence.”  
“Some taken,” I mumbled, my cover was cracking apart. Liz knew everything, well everything but the stuff about Katalyst, and I couldn’t explain why but I trusted her completely. Jason was only just breaking the surface and I didn’t trust him as far as I could throwing, and sadly the zap that gave me my powers didn’t throw in any super strength for free so I probably couldn’t even pick the guy up.  
Jason motioned at his GPS and I took the hint and tapped my address into it.  
“So what now?” I questioned Jason.  
“I want one thing from you and I’ll keep quiet.” My mind started spinning with literally the worst possible scenarios and I was trying to reason with myself to see how far I would go to protect my identity. Honestly? It wasn’t very far, I should probably work on my sense of self-preservation.   
“What do you want?” I asked, fearing his answer.  
“One meaningful conversation.” He told me.  
“Is that all?” I was quite shocked at his demands or rather lack thereof. Jason had the ability to basically destroy everything I had done up until now, and all he wanted was ONE meaningful conversation? Either he was up to something or he was as stupid as I pretended to be.  
“That’s all.” He nodded as he pulled into my driveway.  
“Fine, let’s go. What do you want to talk about?” I slumped down into the seat, preparing for the worst.  
“Not now, I’ll let you know when.” Jason had the nerve to laugh at me and my impatience. “Look, I’m not going to question you and your motives, nor am I going to tell anyone. You have nothing to worry about.” I didn’t completely believe him.  
In fact, I didn’t believe him at all.   
I knew damn well Rachel already had some sort of dirt on him, that’s why he asked me to homecoming in the first place, so who’s to say she won’t use whatever it is against him again? I considered how difficult it would be to keep tabs on his phone and his conversations with Rachel. It wouldn’t be great, but it might be my only option. If he started to say anything to her I could fry his phone much like how I did with the construction worker’s one this morning. Although that wasn’t intentional, and I didn’t know if my powers were even recharged enough to do basic tasks again.  
“Thanks for the ride, Jason.” I gave him a fake smile that I hoped looked believable.  
“Any time.” He responded as I opened the door and got out of the car. I didn’t even wait for him to drive away before I practically ran up the remainder of my driveway to the front door.

It wasn’t until I got to the door that I remembered the alien tech that I had stolen and the guys tracking it. Panic swept over me and I fumbled with my keys, only for my father to open the door just as I was about to lift them up to the lock.   
“Who’s the boy?” He questioned, cutting straight to the point.  
“My homecoming date,” I told him, squeezing past to get inside. My mind was too preoccupied with the hoverboard. Admittedly I was relieved to see that my father was home and that he was okay, chances are that meant no one had broken in to steal the board back. We had very secure alarm systems and even a bug squeezing through a window would set them off and send the cops over.  
“Date? You have a date?” My father gasped, closing the door behind me. “You’ve never had a date before, when am I going to meet this date? Is he a nice boy?”  
“Too many questions dad, my mind is running on overtime as it is.” I sighed, making my way to the kitchen and pouring myself a bowl of cereal. Cereal was my comfort food, particularly frosted flakes with extra spoonfuls of sugar. My dad always cracks the joke that I’m ‘sweet enough already’ whenever he sees me with it, but this time he was too preoccupied with the interrogation.  
“At least tell me who he is so I can run a background check.” I rolled my eyes at this.  
“Dad, he’s a teenage boy who’s taking me to homecoming, it’s not like you’re employing him as a secret agent.” I was practically inhaling the cereal after every other word, after Rachel’s comments about my weight at lunch I was determined to actually put on some just to spite her. “If you must know his name is Jason Ionello and he co-hosts Midtown News, but that’s all I’m giving you.”  
“Well, I’ll want to meet this boy before I let him run away to homecoming with you.” He told me, grabbing a spoon and stealing a mouthful of my cereal.  
“HEY!” I yelled, with my mouth full.  
“Honey you don’t need all that sugar, you’re sweet enough as it is!” He laughed, I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but laugh along anyway. As predictable as it was, that line would never fail to make me smile. 

↞ - - - - - ↠

It was 1 am and I couldn’t sleep. Every single sound outside my room made me nervous in fear it was the two guys tracking me down. I would get up to peer out my window every five minutes, I didn’t know what it was about the alien tech that would allow it to be trackable, but I was determined to dismantle it to find out  
I had spent a good 5 hours after getting home tinkering with the hoverboard to see how it worked and checking in on Jason and Rachel’s phones periodically to make sure they weren’t speaking about me. I could feel my powers straining to keep the connection for longer than a minute, my powers still hadn’t recharged since the alien tech drained them, but it was just enough time for me to do quick check-ins. From what I could see, they very rarely spoke and hadn’t texted since Rachel instructed Jason to ask me to homecoming with a pink corsage. I was safe for now.  
The hoverboard was a lot more challenging to figure out than I had initially anticipated, it would take longer than I hoped and I was due to go to the decathlon in the morning. I debated with myself on whether I’d be able to bring the board with me  
At 1:30 am I finally gave up and made my way downstairs to grab myself another bowl of frosted flakes with extra sugar. Not bothering to turn the lights on in case I alerted my father or god forbid anyone outside the house watching and waiting, I sat there in complete darkness shovelling spoonfuls into my mouth like it was the end of the world. The light suddenly flickered on and I almost screamed until I realised it was just my dad. I hadn’t heard him because of my own crunching.  
“Can’t sleep?” He asked, walking over to sit across from me at the table.  
“Gee dad, how did you guess?” I joked with an overdramatic eye roll. “I tried but my tummy started feeling fuzzy so I figured I was hungry.”  
“You sure you’re not just nervous about the decathlon?” He pointed out.  
“I didn’t think I would be because I’m only there to step in at the last minute and even then I’m the last out of three backups. It wouldn’t have been fair to kick someone off the team after they trained so hard for it, but I guess the nerves are still getting to me.” It wasn’t a complete lie, but it wasn’t exactly the full truth either. Sure I would be there to step in if something happened, but it wasn’t like I was offered the position for my knowledge.  
“At least you’re better than you were as a kid, I’m so glad you grew out of the phase of puking when you’re nervous.” My dad laughed, reaching over to ruffle my hair.  
“Urgh don’t mention it, the fuzzies in my tummy will prove you wrong. I’m hoping this will settle my nerves.” I told him, gesturing to the cereal in front of me.  
“Frosted flakes aren’t exactly known to be a stomach-settling food.” He chuckled.  
“You’re not my stomach! You don’t know what’s good for it!” I protested, pulling the bowl out of his reach just in case.  
“Can’t argue there.” He smiled, getting up from his seat. “Try to get some sleep soon sweetie. I’ll try and push back my meeting tomorrow morning to say goodbye but if I can’t then good luck in Washington. Make sure you text me regular updates and call me each night so I know you’re okay!”  
“I’m not a little kid dad, I’ll be with the rest of the class I’m sure I’ll be fine.” I sighed, lifting my bowl up to drink the leftover sugary milk only to end up spilling half of it down my chin.  
“Ah yes, my grown daughter who eats like a toddler.” He laughed and shook his head. “Goodnight Rocky.”  
“Night dad.” I smiled as he made his way back upstairs.  
After washing my bowl up I went back to my room and considered my options. I could try to get some sleep and take the dismantled hoverboard with me for safe-keeping, or I could work on it all night until I figure out what everything does. As much as I had wanted to stay up longer and work on it, my body betrayed me. I was exhausted and my eyes physically wouldn’t stay open, every time I tried to focus it was like they rolled back into my head in a desperate attempt to sleep.  
Defeated, I pulled the pink suitcase I had ordered off of Amazon when I found out I’d be going on the Washington decathlon trip so I wouldn’t have to bring my black one with hand-painted binary code on it since that wasn’t very Roxie-esque. It was at that moment that I realised I would have to be Roxie for days non stop. My only saving grace would be getting to bunk with Liz, but I couldn’t risk packing my casual clothes just in case I end up with someone else.   
Reluctantly, I packed some pink silk pyjamas and the usual clothes I would wear to school. I was already mourning my future comfort knowing I wouldn’t be able to wear my sweatpants for a few days.  
Amongst the clothes I stuck the dismantled hoverboard, packing more clothes on top of it to secure it. I doubted I would get any time to fiddle with it but I found comfort knowing that it would be with me and not at home with dad which would have possibly put him at risk.  
Satisfied, I finally gave in and climbed into bed, ensuring that I set 7 alarms to wake me up on time in the morning.

↞ - - - - - ↠  
I woke up floating.

Not like the feeling, I was physically floating. There was some sort of forcefield around me that was keeping me held up and completely enveloped, it was like an electrical bubble.

The moment I realised what was happening, the forcefield disappeared and I fell back down on the bed with a substantial thud. My body was tingling the same way I felt before I would shoot the electric beams from my hands, but instead of just being down my arms it was all over. 

Once the initial panic and fear that it was one of the guys who had been tracking the alien tech down doing it, the realisation fully set in.

I did that. That was all me. Somehow in my sleep, I’d discovered a new power. A new wave of panic set in when I realised that if it happened once it could happen again, for example, while I was sharing a room in Washington. I didn’t even have time to test out and play with my new power before fear had ruined it.  
On the plus side, this probably meant that my powers were fully recharged. I tested this on the alarm that was blaring from my phone to wake me up and sure enough, I felt no strain.

After I had gotten dressed for the day I grabbed the suitcase and the bag I usually took to school with me. Sudden realisation struck, if I could use my new found electric bubble power to float, the hoverboard was basically useless to me now. I mean it wasn’t completely useless, I could still dismantle it to study it, but afterwards, I would have no need for it. This would probably work out well for me; if I could just return to the bridge where I found it I could leave it there and wait for the tech sellers to return and find it. I would be safe and in the clear with more knowledge on how the alien tech works, this was the best-case scenario. 

I poked my head out the window to see if my dad’s car was in the driveway, it wasn’t which meant that he had already left for work. As I looked out the window I saw a familiar car pull up with a familiar bitch in the driver's seat. Rachel usually drove me, Amanda, and Megan to school each day, and to my dismay, I was always the first to be picked up which gave me even more time with the she-devil herself.

I dragged the suitcase along behind me, I was surprised when Rachel actually got out of the car to help me open the trunk so I could put the suitcase in.

“I can’t believe you joined the nerd squad.” If words were acid hers would have burnt a hole right through the trunk as she closed it. “Remind me why you’re doing this.”  
“Daddy said that if I didn’t get into college he would cut my allowance by half!” I pouted as I sat in the passengers’ seat. “Apparently extra curriculum activities help you get into college and whats more curriculumy than the decattylon team?”  
“I can’t even be bothered to correct you.” Rachel sighed, starting the car. “Just don’t even think about making friends with those losers.”

↞ - - - - - ↠

We weren’t due to leave for DC until just after lunch. I will admit that the moment I saw everyone else in their yellow jackets I was so envious, I had always dreamt of having my own team jacket but none of the clubs I was in back in Canada had them. They had ordered the jackets a few weeks ago and didn’t have any spares to cover the stand-ins so I knew there was no way I’d be getting one.

I was sat with Rachel, Amanda, and Megan, just about finishing my lunch when someone tripped over and spilt theirs all over me.  
“HEY! WATCH IT!” I yelled, they ran away immediately squeaking out a meek ‘sorry’ as they did. The shock had caused me to momentarily drop my ditsy and high pitched Roxie voice, I quickly realised what I had just done and sat back down at the bench hoping no one had noticed.  
“Holy shit Roxie what was that?” Amanda gasped, she looked amused. “Your voice totally changed.”  
“This is like my favourite top, now it has chilli all over it.” I pouted, hoping that she would drop the subject. I hated this top, but at least I had my suitcase with me so I could get changed before the team left for Washington DC.  
“Oh my god ew! Don’t look now but Peter Parker is so checking you out!” Rachel let out a shrill laugh that pained my ears.  
“What?” I asked, looking around to see for myself what she meant. Sure enough, Peter Parker was definitely looking at me. He DEFINITELY wasn’t checking me out, but he was looking at me with some sort of curiosity.  
“Jeez, I told you not to look.” Rachel said, snapping her fingers in my face so I would pay attention to her again.  
“Maybe he’s just like… Staring at something and imagining something else.” I suggested. “I do that sometimes! I imagine I’m on a runway but I get worried because I’m only in my underwear but it’s okay because it’s a Victoria's Secret runway and-”  
“No, I know what guys look like when they’re checking a girl out and he was for sure checking you out.” Rachel had a scowl on her face as she spoke. I couldn’t tell if she was disgusted at the thought of Peter ‘checking me out’, or at the thought that anyone would ‘check me out’.   
“Gross! You need to put him in his place!” Amanda gasped. I could tell that she was just eating up this situation and loving every moment of it.  
“What like… Show him to his next class?” I asked, twiddling a piece of hair around my finger. “I totally get it, I get lost in this school at least once a week, sometimes even twice.”  
“No, you idiot!” Rachel groaned. “Put him in his place like show him where he belongs in the social food chain. We’re at the top, and he’s way at the bottom.”  
“No, I think he’s taller than me,” I told her, acting completely serious. I was basking in joy at the look of pure frustration on her face, the best side product of my fake oblivious stupidity was how pissed off she would get when I would just run in circles.  
“Urgh you airhead come on I’ll help you. I swear you’d be so lost without me.” She got up, grabbing my arm and pulling me with her. I didn’t know where this was going but I didn’t like it one bit.  
“You do usually help me when I get lost,” I mumbled, hoping she’d get annoyed again and stop whatever she was planning on doing.  
“What’s your problem, Parker?” Rachel demanded. Peter looked terrified, and for some reason, Ned, who was sitting next to him, looked even more so.  
“W-What?” Peter stuttered.  
“Let me put this in simple terms for you. Roxie and I, we’re up here.” Rachel stuck her hand up in the air. “You, you’re down here.” She stuck her hand as low as it would go without leaning down. Peter looked absolutely lost.  
“Okay?” He said with complete caution.  
“Just because she’s a bimbo doesn’t mean someone of your status can ogle at her.” Rachel hissed out. A bimbo? Honestly that was probably the best word to describe Roxie that I’ve heard yet.  
Rachel grabbed my arm and dragged me back to our table once she was sure that Peter was thoroughly terrified. It was hard to imagine that he was the same guy I’ve watched beat up guys who looked like they could lift their own bodyweight without breaking a sweat.  
“Was that really necessary?” Megan asked, she only got an elbow in the side from Amanda as a response.  
“You really showed him!” Amanda smiled, eager to please and fit in as usual. Rachel paid her no attention.  
“Does he know where he’s going now?” I asked Rachel as we sat back down. She rolled her eyes for what was probably the 18th time that day alone.  
“Yes Roxie, he knows where he’s going now.” She sighed. “You should go and get dressed, you look and smell gross with that chilli over you.”  
“Do you need me to show you where the toilets are again?” Megan offered with a sweet smile, I shook my head.  
“I think I know where they are now but I’ll text you if I get lost! Wait do I even have my phone?” I rummaged through my purse while Rachel started a new conversation.  
“Well I don’t know about anyone else but I need a new purse, I saw Sally Avril with one that looked like this one so it now disgusts me.” She stood up clutching said purse. “So I’m skipping this afternoon, who’s coming with?”  
“I am!” Amanda gasped, standing up quickly and following Rachel out the cafeteria.  
“I guess I should probably go with them.” Megan frowned, clearly not liking the idea of skipping class. “Have fun in Washington Roxie, make sure you text me when you get there so I know you’re safe!” She gave me a quick side hug in an attempt to avoid the chilli stains down me.  
“Thanks Meg! You’re the best!” I meant it, she really was the best. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if it weren’t for her I don’t know how I would have coped with the wannabe Plastics for this long.

Once they had left I started to make my way out of the cafeteria to retrieve my suitcase from Mr Harrington’s classroom so I could get dressed before I had to get on the coach. I had packed a yellow sundress which I planned to wear in lieu of one of the yellow jackets.   
Just as I reached the classroom I realised there were already two people in there, Peter and Ned. I couldn’t help but be curious and listen in to their conversation, assuming it was probably about how bitchy Rachel had been.  
“I’m telling you Ned, she sounded JUST like her.” Peter told him.  
“There’s no way, you’ve got to be mistaken!” Ned responded. I had no clue what they were talking about but whatever it was it was clearly not meant to be heard by anyone else. “I mean Roxie is the last person I could ever imagine being Katalyst.”

Shit.

“Did you hear how her voice changed when she was yelling at that guy? Katalyst said the EXACT same thing the other week when we were trying to stop those guys robbing the bank!” Peter explained.

Double shit.

“Dude people sound the same sometimes.” Ned sighed. “Katalyst is a badass crime fighter. Roxie on the other hand? I mean… What she lacks in smarts she makes up for in… Well… No I’ve got nothing, she has nothing going for her. I guess her hair is pretty shiny but that’s literally the only positive thing I can think of.”  
“I know it sounds crazy Ned, but think about it!” Peter exclaimed. “They both showed up in Queens at the same time, they’re about the same height when Roxie isn’t in heels, they’re both blonde-”  
“She’s not the only blonde person in Queens.” Ned pointed out.  
“Okay, but who left Liz’s party early?” Peter asked.  
“Roxie…” Ned mumbled.  
“And who suddenly showed up 5 minutes later just down the road when those guys were dealing with the alien tech?” Peter continued.  
“Katalyst…” Ned answered.  
“And who did Flash then brag about seeing back towards Liz’s house?” Peter questioned.  
“Katalyst…” Ned responded. “It could all be coincidental?”  
“Yes, but what if it’s not?” Peter almost seemed excited. “Look, Roxie is going on the Washington trip, right? Well if Katalyst doesn’t show up in Queens during that time it’s just further proof.”  
“I guess I could try to do some background checks on where she went to school before this, see what she was up to at her old school. But why would she act so… dumb?” Ned asked. He wouldn’t find anything, I made sure no one would ever find anything the moment I came up with the idea of Roxie. “What exactly does she get out of it?” The pair were silent for a moment.  
“No one would ever suspect her.” Peter pointed out. “I mean I’ve spoken to them both, I would have had no clue if it hadn’t been for that one slip up.”  
I needed to get out of this one, but how? Obviously I wouldn’t be able to appear as Katalyst in Queens while I was in Washington, but maybe I could fuck with some billboards? Turn Tony Stark’s lights on and off constantly until he makes a public announcement telling me to stop or suffer the consequences? I mean it’s not like they knew the extent of my powers, as far as everyone else is aware, I’m just super good at hacking.

With a plan in my head, I composed myself, put on my dumb face, and entered the classroom.  
“ROXIE!” The pair yelled in unison.  
“Hiiii!” I smiled while waving at them. “My clothes are all super duper icky right now so I have to get changed, but it’s really good because I packed extra clothes for the trip!” I grabbed my suitcase and made my way towards the door. “What time do we have to be in the big car?”  
“In about 30 minutes.” Ned told me. I waved as I left, pausing outside the door.  
“There’s no way dude, you can’t fake that sort of obliviousness.” Ned told Peter.  
“I’m telling you, I’m 99% sure it’s her.” Peter sighed. “I just have to figure out a way to prove it.”

↞ - - - - - ↠

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please like and comment to let me know if you enjoy this story... or hate it... just any sort of recognition that someone is actually reading it would be great
> 
> hopefully there won’t be a year-long break between this chapter and the next… but no promises...


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